Windows Phone has confounded the sceptics by beating iOS for the third consecutive quarter to take second place in the Indian smartphone market, but analysts have warned handset branding will be key to its future growth there in the wake of Microsoft’s Nokia buyout.
Redmond was quick to issue a release online this week, …

The Third World Smartphone

Re: The Third World Smartphone

"Great. I want one! I'll be the envy of all my friends.

This is one "win" Microsoft might not want to crow about."

--

Have you any idea how insulting and outdated comments like this are?

I love Britain, but the days of empire are gone and whilst India has some huge poverty issues (and indeed may be termed third world) the dismissal of it as unimportant or an embarrassment (as your comment implies) shows either a real lack of knowledge or a huge excess of complacency - coupled with downright rudeness..

Re: The Third World Smartphone

@Charles Manning

I used simply get amazed that the level of xenophobia and racism in the Reg forums. Lately not so much.

I now understand that people like you simply cannot come to terms with the fact that the natives over whom your ancestors once lorded over are now better than you in most respects. It is you and your ilk, that have made your country the non-entity it now is, in terms if global economic/strategic power. '

Don't like to own a Windows phone because the natives like it? I guess you wont even drive a Jaguar even some gifted it to you. Is because its now owned by the natives or is it because you cant pay for the petrol since your job was outsourced to the natives?

No surprises really

Re: No surprises really

It is probably more an issue of how the outsourced employees are managed. Probably not as bad as working at Foxconn but I doubt it is nearly as good as we have it. Links related to working conditions for programmers in India are welcome.

No, no, no

Please don't get Steve Ballmer to retire early.

He's the one reason I wake up in the morning and read the news, to find out the next major cock up he's made. Whether it's bigging up Zune against Apple, or launching one screwed OS after another, alientating users with license terms that make no sense, blowing billions on companies that turn out to be worthless. The list goes on.

I would pay for this entertainment, not much admittedly and certainly not to Microsoft, but look how much pleasure he brings to the world. People like Steve need to be cherished and nurtured, not thrown onto the scrap heap just because he is (to be honest) a "fucking big mill stone around Microsofts neck dragging the share price down". Look, anybody who can raise the share price of Microsoft by 5% simply by announcing he's leaving can't be all bad, can he?

Re: Ok lets be pedantic

Racist / sexist free-for-all

Nice of you to tag that on. So Nokia phones are not MANLY and are used by "students and WOMEN".

This is why IT is still in the f*cking dark ages and why it's populated by more virgins than a convent.

Have some RESPECT.

If you have an axe to grind against MS / Nokia, that's your lifestyle choice, using that to have a cheap jibe at a particular country / nationality / sex of people using a particular phone is pathetic and reprehensible.

Boarderline racism aside: Of the phone ecosystems which have problems with rampant malware at the moment, it's the one based on Linux, rather than the one based on Windows. So, Google have done what I thought wasn't possible and made the one part of the PC market which you wouldn't want on Linux present on Linux.

(Yes, I know, Android is or isn't Linux depending upon what you're saying about it.)

That's a lot of 520's Nokia are selling (and losing money on)

Probably not an advisable move considering buyers in countries such as India tend to buy the brand, not the operating system. Nokia is still a well respected brand in India - Microsoft and Windows, not so much. Watch sub-continent sales plummet once the Microsoft Lumia hits the market...

Behind the times (but catching up)

Trolls

Constantly amazed at the speed with which some people trot out the same tired old tripe every time any Windows Phone story comes out. Competition is GOOD - it forces entrenched market leaders to improve their wares, and if they're that good then they should be confident that they can overcome any competition. Look at what happened to Internet Explorer when it was so dominant that there was no effective competition - Microsoft basically declared it "done", stopped innovating and the world was left with a pile of crap for a browser. Strong competition came along in the name of Firefox and later Chrome, all of a sudden MS have to pull their socks up and improve their product. The same applies to phone ecosystems - MS are now the new kid (ok, for the second time around admittedly) instead of the 800lb gorilla in this market and if they bring something new to the table and cause Apple (particularly) and Android to up their games, so much the better for everyone. Why the quasi-bigotry about Windows Phone? It is far from perfect, but it does a lot of things very well. Embrace the competition, it's good for you!

By the way, a bit sad to see the bigotry extends past the operating system wars and into racism on here! Seriously, are you saying you wouldn't like a slice of the income from the 3rd biggest phone market in the world?

Re: Trolls

Yes competition is good, but given how much microsoft have done to stifle competition in other markets there are many of us who want to avoid them ever getting any form of traction in other markets out of fear of the same things happening again.

There are plenty of other competitors to android/ios who would be far better for the overall market.

Re: Trolls

"...many of us who want to avoid them ever getting any form of traction in other markets out of fear of the same things happening again."

... and all the while not giving two hoots about the fact that the market leader in this sector is built on the foundation of gathering and selling as much data about you as possible. So concerned about Microsoft's past that you don't see Google becoming the new Microsoft....

Re: don't see Google becoming the new Microsoft

It's no secret that users of Google products are the meat for the sausage machine, rather than its valued clients. But Google needs willing victims to sell, a whole different deal than the prisoners that MSFT relies on.

Re: don't see Google becoming the new Microsoft

Re: Trolls

"There are plenty of other competitors to android/ios who would be far better for the overall market."

There are plenty of other competitors who you'd PREFER to be better for the overall market, but they just don't have the mindshare, market share or strength to affect the overall market for the better. So, while they might be ethically preferable, at the moment they aren't better for the market as they're ineffective. Blackberry sadly seem to be dying a death, Firefox OS isn't winning any plaudits in its first incarnation, WebOS, Meego and a thousand Linux or Android forks are nowhere to be seen and won't have the tiniest effect on the planning teams working on Android and iOS until they can make themselves significant. Until then - and I do hope that day comes - WinPhone 8 is the best argument for Android and iOS to keep innovating and improving themselves regardless of Microsoft's past history.

Anyone seen "Rush"? The bit from Niki Lauda at the end sums it up - a wise man learns more from his enemies than a fool learns from his friends.

Re: Trolls @ Joe Montana

"Yes competition is good, but given how much microsoft have done to stifle competition in other markets there are many of us who want to avoid them ever getting any form of traction in other markets out of fear of the same things happening again."

Do you think firms engage in competition out of charitable goodwill to mankind? No! You as a commercial market actor engage in only as much competition as you must. If you could charge £10 million per year as your salary, you would. As it happens you're obliged to compete with other people presumably offering much less to provide what you do.

The only reason you're not complaining about Apple is they're a luxury goods maker. Customers of luxury goods makers queue up to be ripped off, that's the whole point. So nobody is accusing Apple of anticompetitive behaviour because they're simply not involved in markets for essential products. Their products are unless you're a graphic designer completely superfluous.

Re: Trolls

Re: Trolls

>> The difference is that Google succeeds, not because there is no alternative, but because ...

> You are implying that Microsoft only succeeded because there was no alternative in the same sentence that you're pointing out that one of the alternatives succeeded.

Microsoft succeeded _on_the_desktop_ and from _the_mid_90s_ because they eliminated the alternatives by various means. Such as illegal per-box pricing, vapourware, buying and killing application providers, bundling, and paying OEMs (via 'loyalty' discounts and direct payments) to _not_ offer or install alternatives.

Microsoft initially ignored the internet (in the first edition of 'The Road Ahead' there was no mention of the internet) and then tried to side line it with the original MSN which was a private network for Windows 95 users. They hoped to kill the internet and replace it under MS control. They gave away IE to kill Netscape (and killed Spyglass too).

Google became a large company in a quite different market by providing services that people wanted. For example in search it was Microsoft that tried to be an alternative to Google by configuring Windows machines to default to Bing and making it difficult to change, and by taking over Yahoo!'s search engine (Yahoo had earlier bought and killed Alta Vista).

In Economics class we called them "snob goods"

"The only reason you're not complaining about Apple is they're a luxury goods maker. Customers of luxury goods makers queue up to be ripped off, that's the whole point. So nobody is accusing Apple of anticompetitive behaviour because they're simply not involved in markets for essential products. Their products are unless you're a graphic designer completely superfluous."